The Dark

Genesis 1:3-5

³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

God Separated the Dark and the Light. He claimed the Light was good. But what about the dark? Was it not good? It doesnt say. This bothered me when I realized it. Then I read on.

Genesis 1:16-18

¹⁶ God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.

Light is good, and Dark is bad. That is what we have been taught. The light side vs the dark side (for all you starwars lovers out there) is a classic fight between good and evil. When God separated the light and dark it perplexed me when he only called the light good. But later on once God placed a light to govern the night he saw that it was good. That got me to thinking (dangerous I know).

We as Christians tend to have a lot of dark in out lives. By that I mean sins we try to hide and attitudes and behaviors we tend not to control. Before God gave a light to govern the dark, the dark didnt serve much of a purpose. But once God's light was governing the dark he saw that it was good.

Lets bring this full circle shall we? If you have sin, unforgiveness, behavior issues you havent given up to the Lord. You're hiding in the dark and it is worthless. But if you let your Dark be governed by the light of the Lord then God can use your Dark for good. But still yet many people struggle to bring their dark to the light. Why is it so hard for us to do that?

Are you afraid of the Dark? If so you should be. Theres nothing in the Dark that can hurt you if you let it be illuminated and revealed by God's Light. Living in the Dark can hurt and hinder you by not letting your Dark be governed by the light of the Lord. By bringing your Dark to the light not only will you be liberating yourself but you will also be enabling yourself to be a walking testimony of God's faithfulness in healing and restoration of his people.

I truly believe it is the will of the Lord that you bring your Dark to the Light so that it may be Governed and used by him for his Glory.

Share Your Father

Many years ago a buddy of mines Father passed away. My friend and I were both still quite young and I had about 2 years on him and I couldnt be much older than 7 or 8. Well a week or so after the funeral as you could imagine my friend was pretty bummed being very young and now without a Father.

That is when I woke up one Saturday morning to my Dad saying, "Brett get up we're gonna go out in a bit so get dressed." I got up and ready and then we set out to pick up my friend. I had no idea this was coming but we then went to Fun'n'Wheels which if you dont know what it is. It is a place where you can race go karts and such.

Well we spent a good hour or so racing. I drove my own car and Dad drove with my friend riding with him. It was a really nice day and we all had a lot of fun. It really took my friends mind of the situation for a bit I think. After we rode go karts for a bit we stopped then we went back home.

We dropped my friend off at his house with his Mom who thanked my Dad and I for taking him out. After we got back in the car and drove a little Dad turned to me and said. "Thanks for Sharing your Dad today, it was a really good thing you did and I'm really proud of you. You helped your friend out a lot by doing this." Now, no going to Fun'n'Wheels wasnt my idea and no I didnt feel like I did anything special but I did share my Dad when I could have spent the day alone with him I shared him with somebody who desperately needed a strong male figure in their life at that point in time.

You might be wondering why I wrote out this story. well to be honest I was driving tonight and I remembered what my Dad said to me when we had gotten back into the car and driven a little bit.

"Thanks for Sharing your Dad today, it was a really good thing you did and I'm really proud of you. You helped your friend out a lot by doing this."

It kind of made me think about what I would want God to say to me, and how I would want him to be proud of me. I started thinking about how I could go about giving God reason to say that to me and it reminded me of the great commission (Matthew 28:16-20). If I want God to say "Thanks for sharing me with somebody today." Then I need to be telling people about him in the first place! If I want to achieve this then I need to be living out the Great Commission.

If you're like me and want God to be pleased with you and say. "Thanks for Sharing your Dad today, it was a really good thing you did and I'm really proud of you. You helped your friend out a lot by doing this." Then you need to start living out The Great Commission as well. Take this nugget for what its worth but personally I'd like to share my Father with my friends who need him in their lives.

He Must Increase I must Decrease.

Theres something I've been running into over the past week over and over. Its best summed up in the verse John 3:30.

"He must Increase, and I must Decrease."
American Standard Bible

Another Translation Reads:

"He must become More Important, and I must become Less Important."
International Standard Version

Yesterday I was weedeating for a friend, and while I was weedeating I started thinking. What are some ways that I can Decrease and allow for God to Increase in my life? I think thats a pretty valid question everyone should ask themselves every day. It keeps you in check and can help you in bettering your life.

For me This might look like being a better steward of my time and resources. If you would let me, I could sleep 15 hours then wake up and eat and play video games for the remaining 9 hours every day for the rest of my life I think. That would be silly and there would be no glorifying God in it. So even though I dont play THAT much and sleep That long I should still monitor how long I sleep and not "sleep the day away". And I should take into moderation my gaming. That would leave more open time for things such as going to an 8th grade graduation for some of the youth from the youth group I work with. Or being able to wake up early and lead a discipleship group because I got enough sleep and didnt stay up all night playing video games.

We as humans have this instilled desire to promote "Self" and make "Self" Happy so we tend to leverage our time and resources to benefit ourselves. But like John 3:30 says I must decrease but at the same time He must increase. Evaltuate your life see what needs changing and then invest what you need to where you need to. God gave you Gifts and a desire, put them to work. Don't waste them.

Goals

In life you can do one of two things....

You can Progress or you can Digress.

I'm not the same person now that I was two years ago. Heck I'm not the same person today that I was 2 weeks ago and as a matter of fact I dont want to be the same person in 10 years that I am now. You will always be progressing your life or digressing your life in some manner.

I had the opportunity to sit in on a lunch meeting today with my friend and Mentor Durl and one of the Elders of our church Ernie. A little background on Ernie, he has been in sales all his life and currently does a lot of work with The Haggai Institute founded by Doctor John Edmund Haggai. The meeting was to talk about Durl and his moving plans but I got a little bit of info out of it for myself as well.

Ernie made the comment "In life you have to set goals. If you don't you will digress." he also made the comment, "How much passion is in your life?" I started thinking about people I admire and hold in high reguard and evaluated their lives a little. They all are very successful and its because they work very hard at the things they want and set goals and reflect on them daily.

Ernie asked "Do you review your goals daily?" well in my case no not really cause I suck and to date I havent set many goals. And then I think to people like John Bishop, Caroline, and Durl. Eveyday John goes to Elevations church office and reviews his goals as he begins the day. Every day Caroline thinks and dreams of the day shes going to be a Radio City Rockette, Every day Durl is taking steps toward raising money and gaining support to reach his destination in July. All these people set goals, reflect on these goals and take steps to carry out these goals which is evident to me in their everyday lives.

So if you're like me and you suck (that is in not having many if any goals and you fail at reflecting on them.) then evaluate your life and set some goals to start off with. Then review your goals daily. After that start asking yourself questions like "What are you doing better this week than you did last week."

Be bold in your goal making too. I'll end on this quote that I hope will encourage you in your goal making.

"Attempt something so great for God it's doomed to failure unless God be in it."
-John Edmund Haggai

Doubt

I had a conversation with Caroline about a year ago. It wasnt a normal conversation per say but it was fruitful for both of us. Caroline seemed to be a little down and being the nosey boyfriend that I am I pursued an answer. That is when Doubt came into the picture.

Caroline said "I don't know why but sometimes I just doubt God, I want to be as strong as people like you and Aaron but sometimes I just Doubt." That is when I responded and strongly enforced the idea that I Doubt sometimes too. This came as a surprise to Caroline, which was kind of encouraging because I guess it seems like I have it all together. (guess what I don't) Anyways We started talking about Doubt and how it can effect you. It can wear you down and tire you out.

We then started talking about why we believed in the first place and how we believed. The Verse Hebrews 11:1 came to mind and has been a big encouragement ever since I first heard it in High School.

Hebrews 11:1
Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you cant see.

So if you've ever Doubted or are Doubting right now take heart in that verse. Sometimes having faith is hard but the best way to hold onto God's future promises, is to remember his past Faithfulness.

Also food for thought, before I was saved Satan never told me I wasnt saved, he never tried to make me Doubt. That only began After I got saved. Maybe its just me, maybe theres a connection there. But again just food for thought.

Great Healing

Theres something that I've been thinking about the past few days and that is about the Great Physician that is our Lord. It never really matters what I'm going through, but once I hit the brink of breaking or get (in what feels like) shattered into a million pieces I feel a peace that can only come from God.

I started thinking about the different times I've received this peace and in my mind the varying sizes of healing I'd received. And this statement occurred to me:

The more it hurts,
the bigger the wound,
the deeper the cut,
The greater the Healing.

With that in mind I relized that the more we are healed by God the more of a living testimony we become for him. Not only is God glorified IN our healing he is glorified BY our healing if we use it to relay the message of his great Love. Naturally he is glorified in our healing because he is the healer, but if we let others know of how he has healed us in our lives we glorify him by putting concrete evidence along with his message of Love.

Forsaken

So I recently started reading through the book of Jeremiah. I got about 2 chapters in and started thinking and reflecting a little on chapter 2 which starts off titled Isreal Forsakes God.... Now this isnt the first time Israel has done this and it sure as heck isnt the last time they do this.... So I'm sitting here thinking

"Man those morons cant they freakin see how awesome God is? I mean come on hes sent prophet after prophet to them. delivered them from trial after trial and everything is fantastic when they are following him. Why on earth would they be so stupid as to turn their backs on him?"

Read back over that last paragraph. but modify it a little... Instead of Israelites put your name in there and read it a little more like this. Like always I'll be the example, your rereading will look a little different.

"Man Brett is a moron cant he freakin see how awesome God is? I mean come on Gods sent teacher after teacher his way to invest in him and build him up. Hes brought Brett through trial after trial and when Brett is following God life is good, its not always easy but its good and Brett is happy because doing the will of the Lord completes him. Now, Why on Earth would Brett be so Stupid as to turn his Back on God and fall back into a sin pattern or not be steady in his quiet time, or even when he goes back home this summer and after his Mom has her surgery not have a cheerful heart as he cares for her needs? Why? Gods Been so good and so faithful and still Brett puts him on the back burner sometimes. What good is that?"

I know that Jeremiah wasnt written to me or about me and that these were all faults found in the Israelites of the time, but I felt that the truths I pulled from it were to good not to blog about. I'm not trying to guilt trip anybody into going overboard with following Jesus, I'm just trying to say that if God really is this Awesome Entity we proclaim him to be (and he is) then why dont our lives constantly reflect it? and why do we continue to keep falling back into the motions of everyday life not being fueled by him?

Wear Your Own Armor.

*This may be a little rough around the edges, I'll smooth it out later when I have more time and sleep.*

1 Samuel:38-40

"38: Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39: David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. 'I cannot go in these,' he said to Saul. 'Because I am not used to them.' So he took them off."

I was reading a book the other day for my Liberal Studies class on European History between 1400-1800. The book is titled "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli and in a short sentence it is summed up as, "How to dominate a principality and maintain it should you go conquesting....." It came to a section of the book where the writer referenced David, and Saul. He spoke of the instance above where Saul offered David his armor, yet it was to big and not suited for David so he didn't use it.

He went on to make a parallel to war and types of troops you should have to fight your battles. He claimed that Mercenaries, and Auxiliary troops are what you should use if you want to lose.... (Those being hired troops, with no bond to the country, land, or city state they have been brought in to defend.) These types of troops are only so effective because in times of peace, "yea sure I'll join your army for a nice pay check every week.", but first sign of war and they "peace out." And if you were to succeed in your conquest and obtain what you are driving for then how long will it be before somebody turns them against you, or they desert?

At this point I'm sure you're wondering.... what on earth does that have to do with David and Goliath? well its this, if an aspiring leader wants to accomplish something with war, Niccolo writes that he is best off using his own countrymen. Or weapons that he is used to, that wont betray him because of common interest. When David put on Saul's armor that was "foreign" to him it was big on him it was uncomfortable it hindered his ability to act on the task at hand. So David said "No, I'm gonna use what God gave me" which in this case was Grace, Blessings, a sling, some rocks, and the ability to slay things which quite frankly no kid should be slaying. (earlier on David tells Saul of how he had killed a Lion, and a Bear while watching his sheep.)

Let me finish bringing this full circle. When God made you he had some very distinct features that he made a little more dominant than others. These features, or abilities, or in the context I'm relating them to "weapons/armor/equiptment" are what you have to work with.

I have a good base knowledge of scripture, I grew up in the Church and I was discipled all through High school by my youth pastor Durl, and now I'm continuing that with my meetings with John Bishop. You however might not have a strong scriptural base, but you might be really good at encouraging or nurturing.

When God puts a "Goliath" in your life say a friend is mourning a loss. YOUR gift of nurturing would be very effective because that person needs to know somebody cares and is there for them, my scripture base could potentially help but honestly if you came to me after Dad died and said "4th John such and such says that God did this for a reason...." I probably would have hit you in the mouth. (Not saying anyone would or did that)

Ultimately what I'm trying to get at is this. Wear Your Own Armor, David didn't wear Saul's armor because He wasnt used to it. And quite frankly had he worn it he would have been mauled and wouldn't have lived to be King. Use the gifts God hand crafted specifically for you to benefit his Kingdom. Because if you try to use "foreign" weapons/armor/equipment theres potential you are setting yourself up for failure.

Sorry for this being so lengthy but Thank you for reading.

Does the Desire to Impress cause you to Digress?

So, as I recently stated I have begun meeting with John Bishop the Ministries Pastor at Elevation Church in Charlotte NC. Tonight I was sitting in my Girlfriends living room reading over the first 3 chapters of Nehemiah again, and doing my "Homework" of finding decisions that Nehemiah made.
At one point I turned to Caroline as she was working on a paper of her own and said "I'm fairly proud of myself." After something had dawned on me that I don't believe many people would think of just generally reading over Nehemiah. I then proceeded to say...... "I hope John likes my answers." to which Caroline responded "I'm sure he will and I'm proud of you as well. (to which I smirked and to be honest was kind of full of myself for. but she didn't stop there...) Just don't do this for the wrong reason."(Pride sucks and definitely is the fall of every man..... but having a Woman of God in my life that "Gets It" is Amazing.)
This is where I kind of brushed off that statement. I mean there's no way that I'm doing this for the wrong reason. But the past hour or two I've been thinking and maybe the desire for this man of God to accept me might get in the way of what God has to teach me if I don't bring the desire to Impress under control.
So addressing the post title, Yes the Desire to Impress can cause you to Digress, if you allow it to. But it has been addressed, it has been set straight, and I appreciate the people that pour into my life.I'm very thankful for people like Caroline that speak truth to me, and I'm still very excited about my meetings with John and I'm ready to dive hardcore into what God has in store for me in these meetings.